Monday, January 5, 2009

His Latest Obsession(s).

So, what's David into nowadays? It is hard to keep up with him as his interests can change daily. One day he'll be submerged into music, and the next day it'll be sports (tennis, baseball, soccer or basketball for example) and the next day it might be reading. On some days, it might be building.

When he gets interested in something, his interest will be so peaked that he will devote so much time and energy into the activity.

Lately, his mind has been preoccupied with coloring ... all the time.

About two weeks ago, when I went to pick up David from day care, I found him sitting by himself at a table away from the other kids. His back was towards me and he seemed disinterested in circle time where all the other kids had conjugated. On expressing my concern to the teacher I happened to notice that he was actually coloring. The teacher explained to me that during arts and crafts, while everyone was scribbling all over their menorahs, David was taking his time to draw between the lines. So while the other kids proceeded to circle time, David had insisted on finishing. Julia and I ended up waiting another 15 minutes for him to finish.

When David begins to color, he'll choose the markers he'll use before he starts on a picture. When he finishes the picture to his satisfaction, he'll close all the markers and put them back into their jar.

After we came home from school today, he ran straight to his table where I keep his pencils, markers, and papers easily available for the kids, and on finding his coloring book, he started coloring. I couldn't even get him away from the table for lunch. "Five more minutes, mom!"He actually rushed through his lunch and ran back to his table to finish coloring. An hour and ten minutes later, he finally got his nose out of that coloring book. This is what he's been doing all this time.

That is a significant change from just 4 months ago:

I was so happy with him today that I didn't even put him down for his nap. Instead, we read for an hour. (His favorite books nowadays are the ones from the "If You Give A..." series.) We then followed the reading by playing a few games, putting together a large "planet" puzzle and played with his new indoor basketball hoop.

Before he went to sleep tonight, instead of the usual stories he hears, he preferred coloring two more pictures.

During one of his coloring "sessions" last weekend, I started talking to him about his school. One of the teachers he really liked had left the school and he had a new teacher. I proceeded to ask him how he liked his new teacher. The conversation shocked me; not only for the emotion behind his words, but for the clarity for which he expressed them:

David: Mom, Ms. Lorraine doesn't talk to me.Me: She doesn't?David: No, she talks to other kids. Only Ms. Jessica and Ms. Grace talk to me.Me: All right, I'll talk to her and ask her to talk to you too.David: Okay. Go to school on Monday and tell Ms. Lorraine "Ms. Lorraine, David loves you. Talk to him, please.".

I don't know what breaks a parent's heart more, having a child who doesn't talk or one who uses his words to express his sadness. I guess, I'll take the later anytime of the day.